


easy to love

by TheMinnow



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Grieving, Illness, Rex is self-conscious about his outward age, Rex’s death, age gap (but not really?), big sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:21:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29914071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMinnow/pseuds/TheMinnow
Summary: Rex grows old while you stay young.No reader gender is specified.
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	easy to love

**Author's Note:**

> The clones having accelerated aging is something that’s so tragic and terrifying, and it’s not really talked about! This also kind of took inspiration from the Legends storyline about the clones inheriting Jango’s eventual illness, though here I’m not naming anything specific.

He was easy to love. 

You fell hard and fast for the soldier who called himself Rex; he was a man, a man like any other, who loved you just as you loved him. 

The former clone army captain had seemed older than you when you first met. It wasn’t anything to take note of, really… he was an experienced soldier after all. You had figured it was the war that had worn him down. Rex eventually told you of the horrors he lived through during the Clone Wars, and you learned that not only was he just three years older than you, but that his creators had modified him to such an extent that his life expectancy was cut short. 

And still, it made no difference to you. The years you spent together were happiest of your lives.

With every season that passed, you had hardly noticed the changes that had gradually occurred to your Rex until one day, you decided to look at all the holograms you had snapped on your birthdays over the years.

Perhaps your cheeks had lost some of their youthful plump… no, maybe it was that you were wearing your hair differently? Still, there was no overwhelming difference between the first and last images of yourself. On Rex, however, the wrinkles had multiplied around his eyes. He had gone gray and lost his hair. His body had filled out.

The remaining difference between you was absolutely striking.

Nevertheless, your adoration for the man remained blinding. Rex was quick to praise your looks and degrade his own with deflective clone humor, but you knew the young man had a growing insecurity. “They’re looking at us again,” he grumbled when you had received a few fleeting glances, holding your hand tightly as you moved through the market.

“And so what if they were?” you replied defensively. “Come on, don’t do that to yourself. You’re so handsome,” you assured him, pecking a kiss to his cheek.

Then Rex finally grew ill, just as many of his brothers did.

He took the news well. You’d shed your tears in private, unwilling to add to his burden, but you both knew what was coming. You’d hold each other in silence, wishing you had more time while making the most of what little you had left… you should have grown old together. You should have had many things with Rex that could not be. And still, there was no reason for regret.

You were with him until the end.

“Good soldiers follow orders, love,” Rex smiled weakly. “And I don’t want you to look back on us with those tears in your eyes. I’m dying a happy man.”

“Rex,” you whispered, fighting the shake in your voice. “I love you.”

“I know you do… I know,” he breathed. “And I love you.”

His eyes were the same as when you first met; a warm, rich brown that looked upon you with all the love in the galaxy. You pressed a tearful kiss to his lips, trying to remember the feeling, trying to bring him comfort…

And then he was gone, leaving you with so much love that now had nowhere to go.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @janghoefett


End file.
